Naruto's Home
by tobiisagoodboy94
Summary: Nobody knew what saving a single boy would change. But when they needed he help he was there. And they protected, what he could not protect. Naruto AU/Obito lives/OCs and OC Clan in Konoha/Naruto has a family
1. Chapter 1

Well, heres another story from me. This time Naruto, didn't think I'd every write something this fandom again, but here we are. Have some fun and please, don't scream out "what is this" "this happened like that in the story" "Who are they and where did they come from". I plan on answering these questions over time, so just roll with it and have some fun.

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**Chapter 1**

**Team 7**

Sakura felt left out of place, and she really, really didn't like that. This morning she had been assigned to her team, with Sasuke, her heart had skipped a beat that moment, and Naruto, she wished her heart had stopped and killed her that very moment. They had then been picked up by their new sensei, second to last team, while poor Team 6 had still been waiting for their new sensei.

Sensei Kenta had seemed nice, he had introduced himself, smiled and told them to meet on a training field, so they could have some privacy and he could explain them what they would do. Now they were sitting here, in a small clearing and waited for their sensei. He wasn't late, it's just that Sakura had been half an hour too early, Sasuke had shown up only two minutes ago and ignored her and Naruto was just now walking towards them.

The moment her blond, annoying teammate sat down next to her, their new sensei showed up, casually strolling towards them. She had noticed the death glares, Naruto and Sasuke had shoot at each other before and was now surprised, that they both looked at Sensei Kenta, almost smiling and grinning with glee. She had never seen Sasuke really smile before and to be honest, it was freaking her out a little.

Sakura had not really had a chance to look at Sensei Kenta properly till now and she had to gulp a little, once she saw his face. There was a big crater of a scar running across the middle on his nose, she couldn't even believe that he could breathe with such a messed-up nose. The rest of his face was rather handsome or at least not ugly.

He had warm brown eyes, a patch of messy black hair and a wide, nice smile, but she still couldn't help herself but to constantly look at the massive scar, even as he was standing right in front of her. He mostly wore the standard uniform of the Konoha Jonin uniform, except for a few alterations.

His uniform seemed to be a bit more buffed than the usual one and he wore reinforced shoulder pads and gloves, which were not standard issue. He also wore a large sword on his hip, easily the length of a Katana, but with a straight blade and a, at least to Sakuras knowledge, strange hilt. Again, not too unusual, but also not what a normal Konoha Jonin would look like. But Naruto and Sasuke didn't seem to care about anything, they seemed to be glued to the man's words.

"Since we all already introduced ourselves to each other, let's get down to business. You are now my students and while some Jonin like to test their students again, I do not believe that to be fair."

Sakura relaxed a little, she had heard those stories before and had feared the worst. However, Kenta was not finished.

"However, this does not mean that I will accept any excuses from you. I expect you to know the stuff you were taught in the academy." Naruto audibly gulped at this and Sakura could hardly hide her snigger, "I will also not tolerate you stagnating out of pure arrogance or laziness. We will train, we will train a lot and you will probably hate me for it. You will sweat, you will cry, and you will have cramps in places you didn't even knew you had muscles there."

He still smiled widely while saying that and it made Sakura shiver a little, honestly, combat training had never been her favourite thing. She preferred learning and book knowledge and was honestly not so good at fighting.

"You have passed the Ge-nin exams, so you are capable at a basic level." Sensei for some reason smirked at Naruto and the blond boy blushed in embarrassment." So, I won't tell you how to hold a Kunai or how to punch somebody. We will start with simply traininging your stamina."

That made sense to Sakura, as she went through a lesson in her head, which had boiled down to "Stamina=potential amount of chakra you can use". So yes, training to increase their stamina sounded like a great idea, at least until Sensei explained his idea of training.

"We will do some warmups, so I'd say jogging to Training Field 12 should be enough." Training field 12 was on the other end of the village, even if you would manage to walk there in a straight lane, it'd be at least 6 miles.

"Since you are all well trained by the academy, I'll give you a ten-minute head start. You do not want to be there late, trust me." He was obviously playing with the hilt of his sword and her believe that he was messing with them faded away quickly, cause Sasuke and Naruto had already taken off running.

"Clocks ticking Sakura." Kenta Sensei only said with a smug grin and the pink-haired girl took off, running after her teammates as fast she could. The fact that Sensei was still standing there, until he was out of sight, not even moving, did not help with the pressure Sakura felt.

She ran and jumped as fast as she could, slowly catching up to Naruto, while Sasuke was still speeding ahead. She knew not to exhaust herself immediately and tried to keep her breath controlled and regular, so she could run if possible. Naruto didn't seem to have any problems with keeping his speed and his breathing in check and Sakura had to admit that it took her almost everything to keep up with him.

Since when was Naruto this fast? And how fast was Sasuke? She wondered for a few minutes, as she did her best to keep up with Naruto, whose face suddenly paled.  
"He is coming." He mumbled between his breaths and his tone honestly shocked her, it sounded like somebody who had just seen the devil. Her breaths were getting irregular a little, she felt exhausted and tried her best to keep up and barely did. They must have already run for at least 15 minutes and Sakura honestly was starting to fall behind, when they heard a whistle from behind and turned their heads.

Now she also turned pale. Behind them, maybe 200 metres, was Kenta's Sensei, casually jogging at a ludicrous speed, happily waving his sword at them, saying.

"Remember what I told you, you don't want to fall behind me." Naruto only left behind a small cloud of smoke, as he seemingly run for his life. They couldn't be serious; no teacher would be allowed to do something like this. right?

Even from the quickly shrinking distance she could see the almost maniac glee on her teachers face, as he waved his double-edged blade at her and Sakura decided, that she didn't want to find out what the punishment was. She did manage to get to the training field before Kenta, even if just by maybe two seconds and she collapsed to the ground, heavily panting.

Naruto and Sasuke seemed exhausted, too, but nowhere near as bad as she was, dammit she was making herself look pathetic in front of Sasuke, so she raised herself up and forced her breathing to normal levels.

"Nobody is judging you for being exhausted, you don't need to hide it." Kenta told her, in a much softer and friendlier voice than he had used before. Sakura looked at him with surprise for a moment, before the dizziness of too little oxygen made her head feel light.

Kenta sat down in front of her and gave her commands, in a soft and understanding voice." Deep breaths, in…. and out. In…. and out." Sakura did as commanded and after a minute or so, she felt how her senses returned to her. Kenta smiled at her warmly before he stood up again.

"This was a comparison for you. You had a ten minutes head start; I wore heavy gear and armour." He knocked his chest to prove his point, which generated an almost chirping, metallic sound.

"Still I had no problem catching up with you. Not breaking a sweat or even trying, while you are in differing states of collapse." He was right on that and Sakuras head hang down with shame, since she was the worst of them in this.

"Don't see this as me trying to knock you down. Many Shinobi don't really care about training their basic physical abilities and it took me years to reach the level I have now. As I said, just a demonstration, to motivate you."

How was this supposed to motivate her? She had just been shown that she was slower and had less stamina than even Naruto. The blonde annoyance in question noticed how beaten down she was, so he tried to cheer her up.

"Don't worry Sakura. I was even worse than you, before Kenta started training with me." Sakura raised her head in surprise, and she could see how both Sasuke and Sensei Kenta had just facepalmed. Naruto on the other hand seemed to have just now remembered, that he said something he wasn't supposed to.

"I mean I, I meant that I was training myself and with Stamina and ehh I" there was a loud slapping noise, as Sensei Kenta hit Narutos head with the scabbard of his sword, silencing the stuttering boy.

The Jonin just sighed and stayed silent for a moment, before he straightened himself up again and said.

"Alright, this should be enough for today. We'll start proper training tomorrow. You can go home. But Sakura, would you please walk with me for a bit, I have to explain something to you." The girl just nodded and as Sasuke took off in another direction, she just followed as Kenta walked away and for some reason Naruto accompanied them in the beginning.

Well, maybe they lived in the same part of the city, so this wasn't too strange. But Naruto just continued to tag along, happily humming, as Kenta only did a tiny bit of small talk with him. Finally, they reached a large estate on the outer edges of the village, with a large, strange villa in it. It didn't look like any place Sakura knew, it had the shape of a U and seemed to be several stories high and made from massive stone or at least bricks.

"I'll go ahead to eat dinner, big brother. See you tomorrow Sakura." Sakuras jaw almost dropped to the floor, as the happy blond ran towards the villa, seemingly not caring about them anymore.

"You are Narutos older brother? But you don't even have the same family name." Sakura blurted out, but Kenta just smiled and replied

"He is not my 'real' brother, we just took him in two years ago, because he didn't have anybody. No parents, no family. He can't be my official adoptive brother cause both of my parents are dead, but he pretty much is anyway." Sakura almost didn't notice the next bombshell, cause Kenta just said it so casually, but then she started blurting again.

"You parents are dead, but…" Kenta just gently waved her question of and replied

"It happened a long time ago and doesn't matter right now. What I wanted to show you is, that Naruto and Sasuke had a head-start on you. Yes Sasuke, too. Not only is he from a rather prestigious family, he has also been raised by one of the best shinobis in our village for the last few years."

Sakura just looked at him and slowly, she was understanding what he was trying to tell her.

"You are not bad. In terms of physical abilities, you're average and that is ok. We will work to improve that as good as possible. And you got a bright head on your shoulder, at least Iruka told me so, so we'll put that to use to."

Sakura blushed slightly, she had not expected to be praised by her sensei, so she was also surprised, when he offered her a fist bump.

"I'll do my best to be fair and not pay any favours and I already told Naruto he shouldn't expect any. We'll work together to get the three of you fit and ready for everything, I promise that."

After a moment of hesitation Sakura nodded at him but wasn't sure what else to do. She understood why Kenta was telling her this, but she had no real idea what to do else. Kenta seemed to notice this and just told her.

"Don't worry about it. Just wanted you to know." He waited for a few moments and when Sakura still didn't react or returned the fist bump, he just lowered his hand and told her.

"I'll go home now. See you tomorrow, training at the same time, same place as today. See ya." Sakura now snapped out of her stupor and just nodded and said her goodbyes. She walked away from the estate but turned around one last time and saw Kenta entering, waving at her again as he noticed her looking back.

"Why didn't you invite Sakura to dinner with us, big brother? It would have been…" Naruto couldn't finish his sentence, cause his head was already caught between both of Kenta's fists, who almost crushed the boy's skull.

Naruto screamed out, it was painful, but only for a moment, cause Kenta of cause didn't want to cause any actual damage. "What was that for big brother?" Kenta only looked at him for a few moments and Naruto remembered why. He had promised Kenta to not blurt out their relation immediately.

"I explained all of this to you. I know it wasn't much, but you need to keep this in mind. During training and on missions, I am your sensei, nothing more, nothing less. I cannot give you any special treatment or care, just because of our relation." He let out a sigh and sat down on the ground next to where Naruto was still sitting, rubbing his head.

"Sandeime wanted me to be your trainer, because he wanted to make sure that you were save and well cared for, something he couldn't guarantee with most other available Jo-nin. Also, I am one of the few who can even remotely do something, if this guy acts up." Kenta pointed his finger towards where the seal to contain the Kyubi was located. The mood darkened immediately, even now Naruto was still uncomfortable with it. He had isolated himself for days after finding out that he was a Jinchuriki and he still had nightmares. Nightmares about how the fox would take him over and make him kill everybody, while he had to watch.

"Don't worry about that furball inside of you. If I am here, he won't dare to act up." Kenta gave him a reassuring smile, while putting his hand on the blonde boy's head and messing his hair up. Narutos mood improved again and he even grinned, before Kenta went on.

"I can't give you special treatment, it wouldn't be fair towards either Sasuke or Sakura. So, don't you dare slack off and bank on me dragging you through this. If you become deadweight, I'll drop you in a ditch.".

Kenta jumped up back to his feet and with a wide grin remarked.

"I can already smell the food from the kitchen, so let's hurry up before it gets cold." Like on que, Narutos stomach agreed with a loud growling and both busted out laughing, as they walked to the kitchen. He would do everything he can do to make his brother proud and become a great shinobi.

Sensei Kenta had not lied when he told them about his training regime and yes, Sakura felt pain in muscles even she didn't knew exist. Every day they would start with jogging around the entire village perimeter and they had to stay ahead of Sensei, or he'd blow them up again. They'd be blasted in front and if they weren't back on their feet running again before he reached them, they'd be blasted ahead again. It wasn't painful, Sensei seemed to make sure of that, but it was humiliating and probably very funny for any on watchers.

During the first week, Sakura had been blown up two dozen times, Naruto four times and once even Sasuke had been blown up, when Kenta had caught up with the entire group at once. Sakura was sure that Iruka sensei and many other shinobi would condemn such training and if any other person would do this, Sakura would feel ashamed and quiet. But Kenta Sensei had something about him, that made it fell like this wasn't bad.

He never scolded them or laughed about them, always just told them to stay ahead with a friendly and cheery voice. And he was fair, Sakura was sure of that. Never, except for that one time he blew all three Genin up at once, did she felt like he was picking on her or was pushing her to the point where she would hurt herself. If she was concentrated and gave it her all, he would never catch up to her.

So, it wasn't Sensei who made her feel inadequate, it was Sasuke and Naruto. They were enjoying these runs, because they only had to keep up with Sakuras speed, which wasn't too hard for them. This made Sakura mad and motivated her more than any cheesy speech could. She wanted to improve her stamina, she wanted to run faster and longer, so that she could keep up with them.

After these runs, there'd be basic combat training. Each of them would do a one on one sparing match with sensei for half an hour, during which he advised them on how to improve their style and what mistakes to avoid. The other two students would spar with each other during that.

As expected by her, Sasuke was completely out of Sakuras league and she could feel and see how he was holding back. During the entire week till now she had landed not a single hit on him and had always ended up on the ground after at most a minute, without Sasuke even breaking a sweat. It was a bit better against Naruto, she landed some hits against him and generally lasted longer.

But she realized that Naruto also held back, cause his matches with Sasuke usually lasted longer and were far more evenly matched then hers. And both seemed to give it their all. It frustrated her, almost as much as the fact that Sensei was correcting her fighting constantly while they sparred, while he spoke far less with Naruto or Sasuke.

"Correct your stance, throw your punch this way, you are open here, be ready for a counter." If it wasn't for Sensei's kind and understanding tone, Sakura would have gone nuts already, but she went on.

By the time sparring was done, it was usually around 1 pm and they did a break and ate something together. Her idea of doing a diet and losing some weight was however shoot down by sensei immediately.

"You are thin enough and you'll need all the food you can get." He commented while handing her most of his lunch, when she had appeared without any food. At first, she had hesitated, since the food looked a bit strange to her, but after Naruto had started to devour his food, she had also tried it.

It was a sort of sandwich, the was crispy and filled with some ham, greens, tomatoes and a strange white cheese she had never seen before. It tasted good and she was not at all surprised to see Naruto eating three of these within ten minutes.

Kenta seemed to be satisfied with her eating and for the following days Sakura made sure to follow her sensei's instructions. Eat something before training starts and preparing something for lunch break. Although, she had to admit, that everybody's food, Sasukes lunch included, looked better than hers, which she had prepared herself, cause her mother and father usually left early for work.

Strangely, they had not had a single mission for the entire week, and she was certain that Iruka-sensei had told them that missions would be important once they became Genin. Well, it was probably up to Sensei Kenta's, so nothing she could change there. Not that she had much strength left for missions or jobs.

Every evening she fell on her bed, covered in bruises and dust, more exhausted than she had ever been before. Mom was complaining a little, that her sensei was too harsh with them, that they were obviously overdoing it, but there was something strange.

After the first day, she would have agreed with her mother and had been very close to just giving up, it had seemed impossible. But with every day, tiny step by step, she could fell improvement. It wasn't much and the rational part of her brain screamed that it was impossible to make any meaningful improvement within only a few days. Still, she couldn't help but also felt good, it felt good to be exhausted and to fall asleep quick. She didn't even consider a diet anymore and it had only been a few days.

Whatever Kenta sensei was trying to achieve with his strict training regime, Sakura felt like it was already working for her and it felt great. She felt pain, but it felt good and she liked it. The Sparring however was another problem, she still landed no hits on Sasuke and it seemed like even Naruto was slowly getting bored of holding back against her.

Sensei seemed to notice, so two weeks into their training, he asked Sakura to stay a moment longer after their had finished, to talk to her alone.

"First, your making good progress with your stamina. That makes me happy and you also seem to enjoy it a bit." Sakura nodded as an answer and a genuine smile rushed across Sensei face, before he went on.

"I know that you are frustrated with your current combat skills and it will take a lot of time for you to catch up. But sadly, there is no shortcut. Right now, your fighting is rigid, you pretty much just repeat one move from the academy after the other. That's ok, I don't expect you to use something you were never thought."

Sakura wanted to say something herself, but before she could, Sensei raised his hand, signalling that he was not done.

"I can understand that sparring with Naruto and Sasuke is frustrating. They are ahead of you, they had more and personalized training, all you had was the academy. We can't change that for the moment, so what I want to say is this.

I see your progress, no matter how small you think it is. I'll help you as much as possible on your way".

Sakura smiled a bit, getting praise, no matter how small, always felt nice and in relation to her skills in combat it was a rather rare occurrence.

"I'll try my best sensei. But it's still annoying to have absolutely no chance against Sasuke and Naruto." Sakura finally answered and gained a warm smile from Kenta, before he also left.

"Don't worry, that's all I ask for.".

"You really need to start doing missions with your team." Kenta frowned at his best friends' comment, he was neither the first to say this, nor was it the first time he said it. Kenta put his cards down and leaned back a little, honestly, he didn't want to deal with Masamunes comment right now.

"Masas right. Even we had missions in the beginning, although Jon hated it." Tara chirped in and now Kenta was under attack from both of his former teammates. Kenta sighed, before answering.

"We were different, we were already 15 back then and it was a completely different situation." His defence didn't really work sadly, as Tara was quick to point out.

"In difference to us they've been training since they were six. Not that I like it, but both they and you need some experience in the field. Can't just train them for the next few years."

"Why do I need a mission, I'm already a Jonin." Kenta replied to Masas comment, but the brown-haired man just answered.

"Because you're broke and Hiku and the others won't be happy if they have to make up for you not earning anything for years. Also, you just lost all the money you betted against my four aces."

Well, Kenta was fucked. Not only had Masa just taken all the cash he had on him with this hand, he was also right. There weren't many Ryotu earning money and him not doing any mission would soon be felt by his entire family.

"Its just that I don't think they are ready. Naruto and Sasuke maybe, but Sakura is still at the very start. Seeing her makes me wonder what they teach them at the academy. She only knows the very basics and that's already more than she was taught in the Academy. I don't want her to feel like she's just deadweight."

His friends nodded as Hiku gave out a new round of cards, before the also gave his two cents on the matter.

"D-Class missions aren't too dangerous, even with only basic skills she should be able to handle them. It's also good for team building, even if its just babysitting, cat catching or helping some farmers." Tara explained, but Kenta had something else that caught his attention.

"They still send Genin to find that cat? How much money has the daimyos wife spend on people finding that cat?"

After a moment of silence, they broke out laughing, even they had been sent out to save that cat 8 years ago and Masamune still had a scar on his left arm, from when that demon cat went crazy.

"Maybe a D-Mission won't hurt." Kenta finally gave in as they continued to play.

"We're going on a mission. YAY!" Narutos reaction the announcement was about what Kenta had expected, the blonde boy was running around like he had just drank a gallon of coffee, excited for their first adventure.

Sasuke only nodded, while Sakura appeared unsure, she was sure that she wasn't ready for this. Kenta however remained completely calm and after Naruto had finally calmed down, he explained what they were about to do.

"We will go on a search and rescue mission. Our client belongs to the Daimyos family. To be precise, we are to find the missing cat of the daimyos wife." You could pinpoint the moment when the excitement left Narutos face and was replaced with shock and Kenta had to mobilize all his composure to not break out laughing.

They would be the 56th team to follow the time-honoured tradition of finding this cat, which always got lost around Konoha. And well, since it was a good opportunity to train actual team operation, Kenta had brought all the equipment they needed for that.

"We'll use radios, search patterns and will generally take this mission serious. It's a really good chance to train that." Neither Naruto not Sasuke really seemed satisfied, but to their surprise, Sakura seemed to love that idea, as she immediately took one of the radios and started to fiddle with it with an almost unnatural energy.

"Alright, we have a rough idea where the cat is, so I prepared some maps. Everyone of you will search several designated zones and once one of you spots the cat, the entire team will corner it. Any questions?" he now handed out the prepared maps and showed them how to choose the right radio channel. None of his students asked a question.

"Well, let's do this team."

Sakura had never had much interest for the woods surrounding Konoha, if she was honest with herself, she had never actually left the limits of the village in her entire life. So, the woods felt a little alien for her, so quiet. She was almost surprised by hearing her own breathing and heartbeat, as she sneaked through the woods, as silently as she could. The cat was supposed to have a red ribbon, so it should be too hard to find out here, after all cats were not forest animals.

She tried to focus on any tiny irregularity, but except for a red candy wrapper somebody had thrown in the bushes she found nothing, until an annoying voice from the radio almost shattered her eardrum.

"I found the cat; its heading east wards towards sector 7." She was in Sector 7. Sakura didn't think, something new for her, she only sprinted towards where Naruto and the cat probably came from and soon, she could hear Narutos scream towards the feline, as he is chasing after it.

The screams were getting closed and it should cross right about now. Sakura leaped out of the bush, giving the cat and Naruto a heart attack, as the pink haired girl threw herself on the cat and wrapped herself around the struggling pet. Naruto fell backwards on his bottom, shocked by his teammates appearance and only watched in amazement as she and the cat struggled.

The cat was not ready to give up, clawing at Sakura face, scratching her nose, her cheek and finally, her hair.

"DON'T YOU DARE CUT MY HAIR YOU SACK OF FLEAS!" Sakuras almost demonic outburst froze the cat in its tracks, just like Naruto, as they both eyed the enraged and panting girl. Sakura didn't say anything, she just stood up, handed the shaking furball to Naruto, where it immediately tried to hide from Sakura under Narutos jacket and then she started to clean the dust and dirt of her.

Sensei Kenta and Sasuke arrived only a minute later, but they refrained from explaining that Sakuras scream lead them here so quickly. Kenta just checked on Sakuras scratches and the bruises she got from tackling the cat, before exclaiming.

"Mission successful. The client's cat has been found without any casualties. At least for us." Sasuke eyed the still shaking cat while Kenta said that, it still didn't dare to peck out and Naruto seemed awfully confused by the entire situation. Sasuke really didn't want to know what had happened, it would just be bothersome.

The client was relieved and for the first time in history, the cat also seemed happy, as it tried to find cover in its owners squishing arms, as far away from Sakura as possible. Payment wasn't much, but still good for a D-Rank, so everybody seemed satisfied.

"Well done Sakura, you acted fast and precise. Just refrain from the animal cruelty next time." Kenta had a weak smile on his face as they walked out the office, but Sakura only puffed herself up a little man replied.

"Even a cat should know that you don't damage a woman's hair. It got what it deserved." All her team members made a mental note about this fact, the cat had been warning enough for them.

"So, all we need to do is let any attacker cut Sakuras hair and we won?" Naruto finally asked jokingly and Kenta, not expecting this, broke down laughing, having the mental imagine of the current Raikage getting beaten down by a furious Sakura. Sakura took a moment longer, she wanted to retort something, but after thinking about also started to giggle, before breaking out laughing.

Only Sasuke kept himself from laughing, although he couldn't deny that the imagine of Itachi being squashed by an angry Sakura was putting a smile on his face.

"I'll refrain from using that as a training method, but I guess we can keep it as an emergency back up plan." Kenta joked, after he finally regained himself, only to be shoot a death glare by Sakura.

"Or not." He corrected himself, which made Sakura giggle again.

"Man, it was only a simple mission, but we finished our first real job. We should celebrate. Let's go eat at Ichirakus, Sensei buys." Naruto raced off and before a surprised Kenta could react, Sasuke and Sakura had joined him, leaving him behind.

Now he regretted losing all his money against Masa even more.

**Chapter 1 End**

**Authors Note:**

So this was the first chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. Have a nice day and see ya soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Greetings my friends. As usual, I'm rather fast with the first chapters and while Chapter 3 is already in "Production" you can expect my upload scedule to slow down soon. Still, have fun and see ya soon

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**Chapter 2**

**More training**

Slowly, Sakura was getting a routine with training, and she liked it. About one month had passed since Sakura had become a Genin, and she had gained several pounds of weight since then. In the academy, this would have made her mad, but now it made her happy, because she knew that these pounds were muscles.

And that felt great. She was slowly working her way towards being on the same level as Sasuke and Naruto, and it felt _great_. She didn't know how it had happened, but something had clicked in her mind. Instead of being depressed about everything the others could do, that she couldn't, she started to feel happy and a little triumphant about every bit of progress she made.

Lasting half a minute longer sparring against Naruto made her happier than losing weight had ever before. And managing to land a hit on Sasuke felt like three birthdays had happened at once. Best off all, being praised by the others made her beam with pride; even Sasuke had given her a tiny compliment yesterday when she had landed that hit on his left shoulder.

They usually trained for five days in a row, did a mission, and then had one day of regeneration and leisure. Today was one such leisure day, and she was laying on her bed, relaxing and reading some scrolls about martial art techniques she could maybe soon employ. Maybe Sensei could even help her with them if she showed them to him. They could certainly be useful.

"Hi, Sakura, what are you reading?"

Sakura didn't scream but jolted up in shock, which caused Naruto to also jump back, losing his balance on the ledge he was standing on. He was flailing with his arms and was about to scream, but Sakura's instincts kicked in. She jumped forward and managed to grab Naruto's collar, dragging him into the room before he fell.

She fell on her behind and Naruto on top of her. Immediately, rage was building inside of her, Naruto blushing in embarrassment,

"Naruto, you've got three seconds to explain what you are doing here before I turn you into fine paste on the ceiling."

Naruto jumped up and backed up as far as he could, almost falling out of the open window again, but just barely regaining his balance.

"I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to hang out, since we are a team and should get to know each other." Sakura's rage lessened a little from this explanation, but she also knew what Naruto was trying to pull here.

"Let me guess, by team you mean only us two and not Sasuke?" she replied. Naruto blushed and started to stutter, having been busted immediately.

"Well, yes, I mean no, I mean I already know Sasuke, but not you an…" he was just talking himself into a corner. Sakura, with her rage having returned to a manageable level, felt a little pity for the bumbling, blond mess in front of her, but not enough to fall for his original plan.

"Actually, your idea is great. Meet me outside in 5 minutes and we'll pick up Sasuke to hang out together." Naruto was visibly torn up for a moment, though he finally nodded and marched off to leave, through the door. Sakura immediately stopped him and pointed to the window.

"No, you get out the way you got in." Naruto's shoulders sunk a little. Nonetheless, he sulked out the window, jumping out and to the ground. Sakura glanced out for a second, seeing Naruto now waiting down there, sitting on a bench and playing with his thumbs.

Sakura took her time. She didn't have anything to prepare, but Naruto still had to wait as punishment. Finally, she told her parents where she was going and went outside. Naruto immediately seemed to glow, as he jumped up and moved to walk next to Sakura.

"So, we're going to pick up Sasuke and then we can go shopping or maybe eat something." Naruto nodded, but also slowly tried to move closer to her.

Sakura would not tolerate that.

"You and your hands stay away and where I can see them." At her order, the boy immediately returned to his previous distance, if not a litle further. Kenta had almost cracked his skull when he had asked him to use his position as Sensei to help him get closer to Sakura. After that there had been a two-hour explanation on how to properly act when around girls and to not force yourself on them.

"Not like he has any experience; he's been single for years." Naruto mumbled to himself just outside of Sakura's hearing as they now approached the Uchiha house. There had once been a large Uchiha quarter, but since the massacre, the few survivors all lived here. Sakura immediately rang the doorbell and while she seemed to beam with excitement, Naruto's happiness was slowly fading.

It wasn't Sasuke who opened the door, but a man in his mid-twenties. A man who's appearance made Sakura move back a little in shock. His face was covered in scars; it looked like the right side had been smashed in and was covered in bandages. He was also missing his right arm and had a prosthetic right leg.

"Hi Obito, is Sasuke home. Sakura and I wanted to hang out with him for some team-building time." Naruto asked, completely unfazed.

The black-haired man replied with a wide and boyish smile. "Naruto, long time no see. Yeah, Sasuke is home; just wait for a moment I'll get him. Also, you must be Sakura, right? Sasuke told me about you." Sakura could only look on in bewilderment at Naruto whilst the man closed the door. The blond didn't even raise an eyebrow, though, so she could only assume this to be business as usual.

It only took a minute for a visibly annoyed Sasuke to come to the door, Obito in tow, asking them, "What do you want? Today is our day off, and I have no nerve for that." Obito facepalmed behind him, but Naruto, although also annoyed, didn't let himself get deterred.

"We thought that we could hang out a little today. You know, team-building, having fun - that kind of stuff." Sasuke only frowned, but before he could respond, Obito used his good foot to push Sasuke out the door.

"Sounds like a great idea. You really need to relax from time to time, Sasuke. See you in few hours." He spoke rapidly and the door was already closed before Sasuke could speak a word. Only a few seconds later, one of the upstairs windows opened and Sasuke's wallet came flying out, accompanied by, "Have fun." From Obito.

And, although all windows were closed, they could clearly hear Obito running around, screaming, "Rin, Rin the house is empty, meet me in the bedroom in two minutes."

None of the Genin really needed to hear that, and even Sasuke now resigned to his fate, as they walked away, still in shock. Finally, Sasuke sighed and just walked off; not like he could go home for now. It had been three months since Rin and Obito had some private time, so he would give them this chance.

He stopped for a moment and looked back, since Naruto and Sakura were still standing there, staring at the house, completely dumbfounded. Sasuke just shrugged and decided that without his gear, he could also hang out with his team.

"Do you want to stand there all day? Didn't you say you wanted to hang out?" His words finally made them snap out of it and they headed to the town centre. Sakura happily walking next to Sasuke and Naruto walking next to Sakura trying to catch her attention. "As if one idiot wasn't enough already," Sasuke mumbled to himself as they made their way, but he was ready to endure this, at least today.

They went to a large convenience store first, and while Sakura was busy wondering which brand of soda she should buy, Naruto pulled Sasuke aside. The Uchiha boy really didn't want to minimize everything, but Naruto practically shoved the magazine in his face. A very adult magazine, one certainly not meant for them. Sasuke blushed heavily, he had closed his eyes but still caught flashes of the nudity and then heard a booming voice.

"Now you're corrupting others too. I told you that these magazines are off limits brat." The owner of the store grappled both boys by their collars and before Sasuke could react, they were thrown out and on the street.

"Are you happy now?" Sasuke grumbled as he dusted off his clothes, but Naruto had a shit eating grin on his face and just replied in a sly voice.

"Oh, come on, be honest. You like what you saw. You're a dude, too, after all." Sasuke blushed and just turned away from the grinning blonde pest. Obito would pay for forcing this onto him. To his surprise, however, Sakura had not seemed to notice the commotion. She just looked at them puzzled as she came out with her Soda.

"Why didn't you buy anything to drink?" she asked, confused, but Sasuke only huffed and mumbled, "Just forget it." And Naruto still grinned. He grinned far too wide for Sakura's taste and her intuition was screaming that he was up to something or had done something new. Their next activity was slightly less annoying to Sasuke, since they went clothes shopping - or Sakura went clothes shopping to be precise.

Sasuke just sat in one of the chairs normally reserved for husbands and shot daggers at anybody trying to claim his seat. Naruto meanwhile had volunteered to be Sakura's living clothes rack. So Sasuke let himself sink into the comfy chair and just let his thoughts run free while his teammates were busy.

This disappointed Sakura more than just a little. She had hoped that she would find something here that Sasuke would complement her on, but now he was sitting there with an empty gaze, minutes away from falling asleep. Naruto didn't really improve the situation. He just stood there and complimented her on everything. Not that she really cared. He was probably just complimenting her to flatter her.

"That looks really good on you." Naruto again complimented her, but just like before, Sasuke just sat there and didn't even look at her. She just sighed and went back to the changing room. What use was this if Sasuke didn't care. She didn't know why, but when she closed the curtain, Naruto walked off, like he had just gotten an idea, though she didn't really care.

She was ready to leave when she came out again, but before she could tell Sasuke that she was finished, Naruto reappeared and handed her some clothes, smiling shyly. Sakura was dumbfounded, having not expecting this from Naruto, but the blond boy shyly scratched his nose and spoke.

"I saw those and thought you'd like them."

At first, Sakura thought that Naruto was trying something perverted, but the clothes were neither underwear or anything else she would beat him up for. Sasuke's mind was seemingly still somewhere else. She could take two minutes... not like it would hurt. So she nodded and took the clothes from him, disappearing into the changing room again while Naruto seemed remarkably glee.

The clothes weren't even half bad, Sakura had to admit. It was a pink shirt with cream sleeves and a blue skirt. Nothing special, but still nice and fitting of her style. And, what surprised her most, it fit her well. She left the cabin again and Naruto smiled widely, but Sakura's eyes were narrow and angry, chasing that grin away immediately.

"How do you know my measures so well? You got one chance before I beat you up." Her voice was cold, full of just barely controlled rage, but Naruto had a perfect defence, since for once he knew that he had done nothing wrong.

"We've been here for two hours, now, and I put away dozens of clothes for you, so I just looked at those." For a few moments, Sakura was frozen in surprise and then started to laugh. This one was really on her.

"I'm sorry, Naruto." She finally managed to say. They were now both laughing. This had been stupid of her. Finally, once they stopped laughing, Sakura took another look at herself in the mirror and a genuine smile spread on her face.

"They look really nice Naruto, thanks." Naruto's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

With a wide smile he replied, "You look great, Sakura, but you look great with any clothes." Ok, he was back to flirting again, but Sakura admitted, that he had earned it this time and just replied with a light laugh and a warm smile. Now just as Sakura had changed back to her clothes, she heard a familiar voice and her just now great mood was tanked again. She stormed out of the cabin, leaving behind the clothes Naruto had picked and her ears had been right.

There was Ino, right next to Sasuke, flirting with him. Sakura stormed towards them, right past Naruto, who wanted to ask about the clothes, but was ignored.

"Hello, Sakura, why didn't you tell me that you were around, I always like spending time with Sasuke." Ino greeted her with a mocking voice, causing Sakura's rage to boil up in a second.

"We were just about to leave, Ino-pig. And we're hanging out because we're a team, so you're not invited." Sakura'ss voice was sharp, and to everybody's surprise, she grabbed Sasuke's arm and dragged the stunned Uchiha out of the store, leaving a baffled Ino and Naruto behind.

"Well. Seems she doesn't include you in the team. Tough luck, Naruto," Ino said, sincere pity in her voice as she also left, leaving Naruto behind. He stood there until a surprised shop clerk returned from the storage area, not having noticed the scene.

"Didn't your girlfriend want to buy these?" she asked and Naruto just defeatedly shrugged his shoulders and left, trying to find his team.

A few blocks away, Sasuke had finally got Sakura's hand off his arm and was obviously angry, as he went off at Sakura.

"I can take care of myself, Sakura, so leave me out of you girls' dumb games." He had no interest in this crap and to be honest he was pretty pissed about what Sakura had just done.

"Also, you just left Naruto behind, so good job with your _team_building effort. I'm done and going home even if I have to kick Obito's naked butt out the door." With these words Sasuke jumped away before Sakura could say anything, leaving her alone and shocked. Once she snapped out of her stupor, though, she almost tore out her hair in anger. Anger at herself.

"Dammit! Stupid Ino-pig, why didn't I just ignore her?" she asked herself.

Inner's angry voice replied, "Get back to the store and at least apologize to Naruto."

She hurried back, but neither on the way, nor in the store did she find Naruto.

Great, now both of her teammates hated her and Ino would probably make fun of her for that for eternity. She sighed as she mindlessly looked through the clothes in the store, before the store clerk snapped her out of it.

"Oh, it's you again. Your boyfriend didn't know if you wanted those clothes, so I put them to the back in case you returned." The lady explained with a kind smile, handing Sakura the shirt and skirt.

Boyfriend? She thought Naruto was her boyfriend?

"We're just teammates," she corrected, "but thanks." She looked at the clothes again. They were still nice...

The lady just laughed a little and apologized.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my dear, I jumped to conclusions. I just thought that you two were close because he helped and complimented you while your other friend didn't seem to care." Sakura sighed at these words, but just because Naruto showed interest and Sasuke didn't, for now, didn't mean she'd give up.

Still, the clothes were nice.

Naruto had returned home already, not up to anything anymore. He just lay down on the roof of the Ryotu villa and stared at the clouds for a few minutes, before he got company. Sasuke sat down next to him, two Sodas in hand. He handed him one.

"I told you that it wouldn't work. Still, she didn't have to leave you there like that." Sasuke said as he took a sip from his bottle. Naruto turned his around in his hands.

"I shouldn't be disappointed, but it seemed like she liked the clothes. She looked happy for a moment... but I guess I was wrong." His eyes stared into the sky. Sasuke just shrugged and sighed before replying.

"Why are you even that smitten with her. At best, she ignores you most of the time. I'm pretty sure girls that aren't _that_ into me would give better chances." Naruto laughed slightly at his comment.

"All girls are into you."

Sasuke grinned smugly and replied, "Can you blame them" and struck a pretty boy pose, causing Naruto to almost choke on his drink from laughter.

"It's only because they don't know how boring you are." Naruto retorted and this time Sasuke slightly chocked on his drink, before he threw his drink at Narutos head, hitting him right between the eyes. Before they could start arguing or brawling, they were interrupted by Eri, Kenta's younger and Naruto's older sister.

"Hey, guys, Mom's almost done with dinner. She said you could come too, Sasuke, since Obito and Rin are still 'busy.'" The mention of food stooped them and they jumped down to the older girl, who greeted them friendly.

"So, I guess your little plan with Sakura failed, little brother?" the dark-blue haired girl asked. Naruto scratched the back of his head, slightly embarrassed, and Sasuke sighed as they headed inside.

"How did you know?" Naruto finally asked. Eri just grinned and pounded her fist on her chest.

"Well, I'm a girl too, so I recognize this kind of stuff." Naruto wanted to say something in return, but the smell of food made him forget anything else.

Sakura on the other hand felt horrible. She just lay in her bed again, feeling much worse than this morning, unable to stop thinking on how Naruto and Sasuke probably hated her.

She wanted to tear every single hair off her head. Why did she have to go and do something so stupid like that. If it hadn't been for Ino-pig, everything would have been fine. Everything...

No... No, it was her fault. It was her fault and now she had to make it up to them somehow. The scroll from this morning was still on her desk, but she really had no more motivation to read it.

All she could do was her best in training and hope they wouldn't be angry for long. She screamed into her pillow to let at least some of the frustration out of her. Maybe Sensei could help her with this? No. Again, it was her fault, and it was her job to both accept _and_ deal with.

She jumped up, pumping herself up with confidence. She would work hard to be strong, yes, but also to bond with her team.

The next day, neither Naruto nor Sasuke acted like anything had happened, but they did notice that Sakura seemed even more determined than before, doing more stretches, more push ups, and running faster than before. Kenta seemed to notice, but only watched her, knowing what would soon happen. However, Sakura surprised him by keeping up this routine the entire day until they were done, although she seemed to almost fall over afterwards.

So, as Sasuke and Naruto walked off, Kenta told Sakura to stay, and once the boys were out of eyesight, he sat down, sighed, and spoke toher.

"Let me guess: every single one of you muscles hurts and you have to use every bit of strength you have to not immediately fall over. Am I right?" Sakura looked at him slightly surprised, before she let herself fall on the ground, letting out all moans about her hurting muscles and bones she had repressed till now.

"I told you this would take time; you can't rush your development like this. All you'll achieve is hurting yourself and ruining all the progress you've already made." He was scolding her, and his tone was harsher than usual, causing Sakura to feel worse and smaller than she already did.

Kenta sighed again as he looked at her, and for a few moments, just looked at the tiny pink person in front of him before he also sat down and asked, back with his kind and understanding voice, "What happened Sakura? You're far too smart for this. What's wrong?" Sakura just looked at him for a few moments, before she finally told him everything that had happened yesterday.

"Aren't they still a tiny bit too young for teenager problems?" Kenta thought to himself, before he scratched the back of his head and answered.

"Well, from a neutral standpoint, no, it wasn't very nice to let Naruto just stand there like an idiot and since he and Sasuke are friends I can understand why Sasuke would be angry." Sakura's head shot up in surprise, as she just stared at her sensei, who did not feel at all comfortable in this situation.

"Sasuke and Naruto are friends? But during training they always act like they hate each other. They barely even accept the presence of the other." Now Kenta was just as surprised as Sakura. He'd never payed attention, but it was true. During training and missions. those two interacted like water and oil, but Kenta had just ignored that, since he knew that they were friends.

"Well, me and Obito are old friends, so those two were bound to hand out from time to time. So why would they act like this during training…" Slowly, very slowly, the gears started to turn in Kenta's head, as he looked at Sakura, who's face slowly turning red in rage, and understood what was going on. In his head he face-palmed so hard and already said goodbye to all the money he had to spend on Ramen to make up for this.

Before he could do something, Sakura had already stormed off, steam coming from her ears as she loudly cursed out both boys. She headed for the Ryotu home. Kenta on the other hand decided not to go home right now. He wasn't one for drama, so he really didn't need to see Sakura tearing both boys a new one.

Sasuke was the first to sense danger approaching. He was at the Ryotu house again and they were just on the roof as usually, when he saw Sakura approaching. Even from this distance he could see the red colour of her face and feel the poison in the glance she shot at him, once she stopped him. He had enough experience with the Ryotu and his own home to know that he didn't want to deal with this, but, to his shock, Sakura wouldn't allow it.

With a speed he didn't expect from her, especially not after today, she charged onto the roof, facing both boys, with Naruto looking like he was about to wet himself.

"I didn't know you guys got along this well. Seems like yesterday really helped you with that." The poison in her face made even Sasuke shudder, as both boys slowly moved away from, but Sakura just followed them, step by step.

With a wide, almost manic smil,e she went on: "You don't need to act, Kenta spilled the beans already. I know that the two of you have been best buddies long before you became teammates. So, I guess yesterday was planned by you, Sasuke being completely disinterested and Naruto being so friendly.".

"You wouldn't be acting like this if he pushed nudes in your face," Sasuke mumbled to himself, but Sakura didn't seem to notice, as she just kept closer and closer, and the boys had now reached the edge of the roof with no more space to move backwards. Naruto was stiff and sweating in fear, his eyes fixated on the mad girl in front of him, with Sasuke in a not much better condition.

Finally, there were only two feet left between them, and Sakura stopped, just staring at them for a few moments. The boys readied themselves for the worst, but to their surprise nothing bad happened. Quite the opposite. To the boy's utter amazement, Sakura bowed her head in apology.

"It still doesn't justify my behaviour. Even if you two tried to set me up, you were genuinely nice, Naruto, and I left you just standing there. That wasn't fair, so please forgive me." Naruto didn't know how to react. There was now a small wet spot in his underpants from the fear he felt just a moment ago and now Sakura was apologizing?

"It's ok, don't worry about it." He finally stumbled out and immediately Sakuras face got scary again.

"Still, this doesn't change what you two did. You acted like you hated each other in front of me. Why?" Sasuke now intervened and saved Naruto.

"I was not acting. Yes, I can bear Naruto on his own, but you two combined is just too much for me to bear alone." He defended himself and earned a look from Sakura, he however didn't melt away under it, or at least not as much as Naruto. Sakura just continued her stare for almost another minutes, before she finally gave up her façade and smiled at them.

"Ok, let's just forget yesterday, under one condition." She paused for dramatic effect, as Naruto stared at her like a dear in the headlights, Sasuke just wishing for this to be over.

"We from now on regularly hang out on our free days. I promise I won't just run off if you guys promise not to set me up for anything." She stretched out her hand and after a moment of understanding of what she had proposed, Naruto happily shook her hand and agreed. Sasuke took a moment longer and while he shook Sakuras hand, he was sure that Obito would do a little celebration dance once he told him, since he could now get more free time with Rin.

Once this was done, Sakura stood there for a few moments before asking in a slightly pleading voice.

"Could you guys help me home? I don't think my muscles will move another inch for today." She now slowly started to fall backwards, and the boys just barely managed to catch her before she hit the roof. Getting her home turned out to be easy, to hard part was convincing her mother that it had not been their fault that Sakura was this exhausted and that they had not taken advantage of her. In the end she took her exhausted daughter and seemed to at least partially believe the two boys, but still shoot a poisonous look at them before closing the door.

"Well, seems like you got what you wanted. But don't expect me to help you with this stupid stuff." Sasuke said, as they walked back home, but Naruto seemed to be very happy about how everything had worked out. He just grinned widely and said sheepishly

"Don't worry Sasuke, all you have to do is stay the way you are." Sasuke just sighed and hit his friend on the back of the head for this dumb comment. But maybe, if he was lucky, Naruto could at least stop Sakura from being so obsessed with him, because it was annoying. Many girls were and while it was certainly flattering, the girls were mostly just annoying, and he wished they left him alone.

"I hope you're proud of yourself Sakura, faking exhaustion so the boys carry you home like this. I thought you wanted to become stronger and more independent." Sakura's mother nagged her, but the girl just grinned.

"Well, I'm still a girl and a girl sometimes need to do what a girl does." Sakura answered, as she lay down on her bed again and her mom just gave her a sigh as she left her alone. Sakura was really exhausted, but she had acted a little bit to get the boys, Sasuke especially, to carry her home. But her muscles still hurt, and she was sure that it'd be worse tomorrow.

It was much worse the next day and Sakura felt dread as she walked to the training grounds, while every step another muscle hurt or itched. The others were already waiting for her, but to her surprise there would be no physical training today. Instead, the moment she was there, Sensei Kenta gave a thin piece of paper to each of them and then explained.

"You all learned about the five elements in the Academy, so I won't explain the basics to you." Naruto gulped at this and Sakura was almost certain she remembered him sleeping through that lesson.

"This paper is no paper. It's made from special trees, which have specially treated their whole life and the paper has been made in very complicated process. This has given this paper a special ability. Let me demonstrate." He held the small piece of paper between his thumb and index finger and once he was certain that his student's attention was on him, it combusted with bright red and gold flame.

"When you pour chakra into this paper, it reacts depending on your own chakra element. If you have a fire affiliation like me, it will combust like this. Like an affiliation it will become wet, with earth it will crumble, with lighting will wrinkle and with wind it will get cut." Naruto had looked in amazement at the bright flame and even Kenta was certain that he was probably no longer listening properly.

"So, you are still Genin, but you should have enough Chakra control for this test. Now focus on your chakra and pour some of it into your piece of paper."

The three Genin now held their piece of paper the same way Kenta did, and they all closed their eyes to focus on it, making their Sensei chuckle a little. He didn't expect them to figure it out immediately, but after only a second, Sakuras paper crumbled away completely and she looked at Kenta with a wide smile. So, she had the best chakra control of them, that was good to know for him.

Sasuke took a little longer, then his paper wrinkled, and Kenta sighed. He had hoped for fire, because that would have made it easier to teach him, but thankfully he knew some skilled lightning users to assist him with that. Naruto was now last and focused so much on his paper, it seemed like he was only moments away from having and accident in his pants.

But, finally after three minutes, a small cut appeared in the upper half of the paper and Kenta was satisfied.

"Earth, Lightning and Wind, seems like we are a well-mixed group." Kenta commented, as he sat down on the ground and started to hand out scrolls to each of them.

"For the moment, you won't be able to do very much with that knowledge. You still need to train your chakra control and increase your reserves and stamina to use Ninjutsu in a meaningful way. There are however a few basic ways we can use this knowledge. Each of these scrolls describe several basic techniques for your elements. I want you to read through them and pick one technique that you want to learn for now."

The Genin nodded and even Naruto started to devour the scroll, while Kenta stood up and announced.

"I'll leave you for an hour now. Pick a technique till I come back, then we can start with the basics to learn these Jutsus.".

Sasuke frowned, he had already learned several Fire Jutsus before becoming a Ge-nin and starting to learn another element seemed a bit too much. But he would play along and looked through the scroll. A technique to shock opponents on touch, a technique to blow out electrical circuits, one to redirect electricity. His eyes widened, yes, the next one was fitting, it was perfect for a technique Obito was already teaching him.

Sakura had no experience with elemental Jutsu, so she really didn't know what to learn. Maybe just something basic and versatile she could use in many difference situations, maybe something she could use defensively and for movement.

Naruto had no idea what to pick. While he had bugged Kenta and the others for years to teach them any elemental techniques, he had always wanted anything cool like spitting fire or creating large walls of stone. But nothing cool like that was in this scroll. Longer jumps with wind, greater speed with wind, most of the techniques in this scroll didn't sound as cool as Naruto had hoped. Combined with the fact that half of techniques had names he didn't even really understand didn't make it much easier.

"Ehh Sakura, can you help me here?" he finally asked, not sure what to do, but he only got a puzzled look in reply. This wasn't some sort of text where he could copy answers, so what was she supposed to do. Before she could say something, Sasuke grabbed the scroll out of Naruto hands, sat down between the two of them and started to go through it.

"Your chakra control is bad, and you are generally not the fastest type. You could try to make up for weaknesses with techniques, but for now its probably better for you to actually be good in something." Sasuke started, sounding annoyed by this, but holding the scroll so that both Sakura and Naruto could also read and asking for their opinions. Better to help the idiot find something fitting, instead of wasting time later.

"Hmm, what do you say, they are actually working together on this one. And you didn't need to threaten them or use bells." Tara commented, as she and her old teammates observed the Ge-nin from afar. Kenta held back a laugh, while Masamune commented.  
"Don't let Kakashi and the others know, or they might have an existential crisis." Masas joke was too much and Kenta started to laugh while covering his mouth with his hands, almost falling of the tree he was sitting in.

"Didn't you say you wanted to focus on Stamina and basic skills with them first? Elemental Jutsus are a bit more than that?" Tara asked her old friend, after he finally got his laughter back under control.

"Yes, I wanted to do that, but the Sandeime and elders are increasing pressure on me. All the other training teams have already done more and more difficult missions and they really don't like that. So, I have to increase the speed a bit." He explained and Masa nodded, before saying.

"Well, you were lucky with their elements, we can help you with that easily, outside our own mission load." Tara now also nodded in agreement.

"Yes, you will have to do more missions again. Or else you wouldn't be able to compensate us for our assistance." She said, sounding like she was joking, but Kenta knew her too well. He would have to pay for lots of drinks and food from now on.

"Times up, let's see what they came up with."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is here. I still have a writing streak so for the moment I actually have a decent upload scedule. I'm happy to take bets from everybody, concerning how long my writing energy will remain.

But enough whinning for now, have lots of fun with Chapter 3.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

„So, team, the hour is up. Have you decided which technique to learn?" Kenta had appeared out of nowhere, making Sakura twitch a little, before she noticed that he wasn't alone, he had two other shinobi with him.

One of them was another guy, how was a bit smaller than Sensei and had slightly longer brown hair that went down to his neck. One of his eyes seemed to have been lost, since she could still see the scar underneath the eyepatch he wore. Except for that however she found him attractive, if it wasn't for the hair colour, he could have almost passed for an adult Sasuke, so his presence made her blush a little. He worse the usual attire of a Konoha shinobi and carried a Katana and a shorter blade at his hip.

The second person was a woman, also about the same age as Kenta, with black hair, that was about if Sakuras, which she wore open. She had warm green eyes and a wide smile on her face, as she seemed to inspect them. She didn't wear the standard uniform, instead she wore a custom dark brown vest, with even more pockets than the standard issue, over a green shirt. She also wore fingerless gloves and dark pants, which she had rolled up, so they ended just under her knees, were her slightly heeled boots started.

Neither Naruto nor Sasuke seemed to be surprised by these visitors, something Sakura was slowly getting used to and finally Kenta sensei explained the situation.

"As you may have guessed already, I can't teach you all the different elemental techniques, so I brought some help. My old teammates, Masamune Satsu and Tara Taci. Masa is a highly skilled lighting user and Tara is without the doubt the most prolific Wind element user I know." They both nodded their head in agreement about the praise, but Sakura started to notice a problem here, however she kept it to herself for now.

"So, you actually have a lightning affinity you little shit head." Masamune addressed Sasuke, who only huffed, while Tara had already approached Naruto, ruffling up his hair and saying.

"Well, let's see if can't get something useful into that thick skull of yours." Naruto blushed, but smiled widely, which the woman returned.

Finally, Sakura was left with Kenta, but Kenta didn't have an Earth affinity, so.

"Don't worry Sakura, while I have a fire affinity, I'm skilled enough with Earth techniques to teach you a few tricks." His smile was friendly and warm, still Sakura felt like she was left out. Naruto and Sasuke got help from people they already knew and who had the same chakra affinity as them. And all she got was "skilled enough".

Kenta seemed to notice how unhappy she was with this, sighed and walked past her for a demonstration. He waved several signs and then put his hand and the ground. And the ground split, there was no rumbling or a moment of silence before the jutsu showed its effect, not immediately the earth moved apart as two neatly separated plates, leaving ten feet wide, 100 feet long and twenty feet deep chasm in the ground.

The Genin looked at their sensei in amazement, while his old teammates only sighed about this obvious muscle flexing.

"Don't worry Sakura, I know what I'm talking about."

The pink haired girl just nodded her head before they separated into three two people groups, so that each of the Jonin could help the Genin with their chosen technique.

"Earth Wall, what made you choose that?" Kenta asked Sakura once she had shown him what she wanted to learn and for once she was in her element.

"It's a very versatile technique. It has great defensive use and I can also use it to limit an opponent's movement or augment mine." She proudly exclaimed and there was a short hint of pride on Kenta's face, before he answered.

"Good answer. Now you need to understand. The Earth Wall is a rather diverse technique with many ways of how to use it and how it looks. Your Earth Wall won't look like mine and will, for now be much weaker. But it will still be useful."

Sakura nodded and was eager to learn, so she was surprised when Kenta sat down on the ground and gestured her to do the same. So, she sat down and looked at her Sensei excited.

"Place your hand on the earth and close your eyes." Sakura did as was told, but still felt tense, not knowing what to expect.

"Now put chakra into your hand. Do you fell how your chakra flows through the earth?" Sakura tried her best, but she didn't feel anything. She was good at chakra control, but now she felt absolutely nothing, and it frustrated her. She opened her eyes again and Kenta sensei was smiling at her.

"I would have called you an absolute genius if you had managed this at first try. I could just teach you the technique, but I want you to understand the element and actually control it, so you can also properly use the Jutsu."

Sakura nodded in agreement, as she put her hand on the ground again and repeated the exercise. Again, Kenta instructed her.

"Keep calm and feel the ground, feel the chakra you are pouring into the ground and how it flows through it. Can you feel it?" but Sakura just shook her head again, she didn't feel a thing.

"Keep on doing that exercise until you actually feel something. It's the most basic training you can do to learn Earth techniques and we'll do it slowly and properly." Kenta reassured her, before they continued with the exercise. But, although she knew that she was at the very beginning of her training, it was rather disheartening to see both Naruto and Sasuke seemingly having more progress than her. There were tiny lightnings jumping between Sasukes fingertips and even Naruto seemed to create some wind, at least she hoped it was wind and not a fart.

"Alright, I won't you to continue this exercise on your own. Masa and Tara will help us once week, unless they are busy or have missions." They continued this training for the rest of the day, but she made no real progress on it for today. And as Kenta had asked her to, Sakura continued her training on her own, although progress was minimal.

"He had told me it would take time to learn this, just got to hang on." Sakura told herself, as she failed really feel anything for the tenth time this day. It was their day for today and Kenta had been summoned by the Hokage.

"How is progress with your team, Kenta." The old man asked in a friendly tone, while his advisors scoffed.

"Oh, they are making good progress, it will be a while before we reach the point where I want them to be, but we are slowly getting there." Kenta replied, not without a tiny hint of pride. They were making progress, especially Sakura had improved a lot during the last few weeks, but he already had a suspicion where this conversation was going.

"That may be. But your team also has the lowest number of successful missions of all the new training teams and you only did D-Rank until now." One of the advisors, Homura, noted and Kenta sighed, of course they wouldn't be satisfied with the mission count, since he was more focusing on properly training them first.

"We understand you concern for training your team first and then send them on missions. However, we believe that you are currently focusing too much on training." Koharu added and in his head, Kenta replied _Wouldn't have to train them that much if the Academy was worth anything._ But he kept it to himself and just nodded his head.

"Therefore, we have decided that you and your team should take a C-Rank mission, it will be a great opportunity for your team to improve themselves. Kenta continued nodding stiffly, he for sure was not happy with this, but he also had the feeling, that he had already pushed his own position as far as he could. Unless he wanted them to remove him from his post, he had to give in on this one.

"I assume you already have decided on a fitting mission for my team?" Kenta asked and the Sandeime nodded, as he handed him a sheet of paper. Kenta quickly flew over the mission details. The mission seemed simple, courier duties outside the Fire country. It would take time, but probably no combat.

"Thank you very much, I will inform my team and we will head out tomorrow." Kenta declared and after some murmurs of acknowledgement, he took his leave. However, somebody else was already opening the door and Kenta smiled as he saw who.

"Hi Kakashi." Kenta greeted his fellow Jonin who also replayed with a short hi and a handshake. It was however one of Kakashi's students Kenta cared about.  
"How is it going little brother?" Kenta asked his younger brother Sho as he ruffled up his hair, against which the boy struggled with no success. Sho was about Narutos age and had graduated with him, but he was also an almost perfect copy of his late father. Sho had black hair which slightly curled, brown eyes and a soft and kind face.

This had always hurt Kenta to know. Back when their clan was still independent, Sho would have never had to a warrior, he was a kind and gentle person and generally despised killing. But with their desperate situation and the deal they made with Konoha, they had had no other choice. He also greeted Shos teammates, he had seen them a few times, but they had seemed nice, before he finally left the room.

Kenta was a bit lost in his thoughts, so when walked down the hallway, he crashed into an older man stumbling along. The man smelled of cheap booze and wasn't the nicest person, so Kenta just mumbled an apology and headed out as soon as possible. He still needed to inform his team, if he was lucky, they were still together.

Sakura had enjoyed her day hanging out with her team, especially with Sasuke, even if he was still rejecting her advances, for now. So, she had decided to reduce her advances for now and instead just had a bit of fun with her teammates. Today they had just bought something to drink and eat and then relaxed together, just chatting a little about really nothing. It was nice, and Sakura enjoyed herself.

"So, you have two siblings that are also in training teams?" their discussion had reached talking about their families and while Sakuras family was completely uninteresting, Sasuke really didn't want to talk about it, understandably. So, it was mostly just Naruto happily talking and Sakura giving him questions from time to time to go on.  
"Yeah, Eri and Shi both are also in training teams. Sho was actually in our class and Eri has already been a Genin for two year."

He was right, Sakura now remembered Sho, the quiet, black haired boy who usually sat next to Naruto in class. She had honestly never cared about him, the only boy she had cared about in the Academy had been Sasuke, something that now seemed a bit strange to her in retrospect. But she had never heard about Eri, thankfully Naruto now kept on talking about her.

"Obito is her sensei and she and her team work really well together. She's is super strong and will easily soon become a Chunin or a Jonin." He happily explained and Sasuke seemed to cringe a little, when his caretaker was mentioned. Sakura just looked at him bewildered for a few moments, before he finally gave in and grumbled

"Obito liked to use me as a training assistant before I became a Genin. Usually for target practice." Sakura wanted to ask if that was even legal to do, but she had to admit that image of Sasuke wearing a target and getting attacked made her giggle a little.

"Well at least that was good evasion training for you." Kenta had appeared behind them without any of them noticing, causing Naruto and Sakura to almost fall of the bench they were sitting on. Kenta just laughed a little about their usual surprise and explained

"Sorry for bothering you during your free day, but we were just assigned a mission and I wanted to warn you for tomorrow. We'll be going on a C-Rank mission outside the Fire Country. So please prepare yourself for that and pack enough supplies and clothes for at least three weeks. See you tomorrow."

Kenta disappeared just as fast as he had appeared and left the three Genin stunned. Sasuke seized this opportunity to excuse himself, as he now walked away and left his teammates alone. On the inside Naruto was giving his buddy a thumbs up, however Sakura had already realized what they were up to.

"I'm going home now, too. And now, I don't need you to walk me home Naruto." Well, so much for his hopes, as Sakura just walked away, too. Well, he probably had to stop trying to force himself onto her, Naruto thought. It probably annoyed her just as much as Sakura annoys Sasuke when she fangirled about him.

But how was he then supposed to get closer to her, it was a mystery he had not managed to solve yet.

The next day they met at the village gate and again, Sakura thanked her sensei for the training they had done till now. She carried a large backpack with enough supplies for the long mission and she was sure that a few months ago she wouldn't have been able to carry this stuff for long.

"Alright people, our mission is rather simple. We are to act as couriers for an important package." He showed them a small box, he then again stored away in his backpack.

"Our destination is in the River Country and the two-way trip will take about two weeks. The package is not time sensitive, so we won't run ourselves to death. I want you to be on your guard during this mission. We do not expect any other shinobi to attack us, but the region is well known for having a bandit problem. So, there could be some problems." He explained and Naruto and Sasuke seemed to look forward to some action.

They would be disappointed. Nothing happened on their way to the border, they didn't even meet any other travellers and just walked the entire All they did was walking all day long and they would only stop when the sun was already setting. They would then train their elemental control for some time, before going to sleep. And while they were still in the Fire country, they also didn't post any sentries, so that they could all get a full night of sleep.

"You did its Sakura." Naruto screamed out, as Sakura hadn't even noticed that some of the Earth had clung to her hand, as she removed it from the ground. It was a large piece of the ground that seemed to be glued to her hand freaked her out a little. But after a few seconds the dirt just fell of and Sakura was left starring at her empty hand.

"Not the progress we were aiming for, but progress non the less." Kenta commented, but Sakura knew that he was just putting it nicely. She had heard about the techniques to walk up walls and trees and walk on water and she was pretty sure she had just done this on accident. She had not felt anything with the ground and earth and the way it had stuck to her hand she was sure that this had happened.

"This was a different technique, wasn't its Sensei?" Sakura asked and Kenta scratched the back of his head, while Naruto didn't seem to grasp the situation completely. Kenta finally sighed and decided to mix things up a little.

"I think it'd be for the best if we try something else for the moment Sakura. A bit of distance can always be useful. We can actually work with what you just used." Kenta now walked towards a tree and, knowing what was going on, Sasuke and Naruto do the same.

"A basic technique for every shinobi is "Walking on Walls", an important technique that improves the movement of a shinobi. It is also a great way to train your chakra control." With these words, he simply walked up the trees trunk like it was the simplest thing ever and Naruto and Sasuke just did the same, Naruto with a big and proud smile. Sakura knew that Kenta had not done this to make her feel weak, this still didn't stop her from feeling that way. But she quickly pushed that aside and jumped, ready for action.

"So how can I learn this technique?" Sakura asked and Kenta explained.

"Focus your chakra in the soles of your feet, so it can suck you onto the tree. You need to regulate the flow very precisely, too little and you just fall off, too much and you damage the tree and get repulsed." Sakura nodded and focused on her feet and after a few moments, walked towards the tree.

"Don't worry Sakura. Even I managed to master this after a lot of…" plomp, there was an almost satisfying sound when Naruto fell of the tree and face first on the ground. He hadn't fell because he was incapable, but because of shock, as Sakura walked up the tree with no problem. She continued walking up till she reached a strong branch and sat down on it. Both Kenta and Sasuke looked at her in amazement, honest pride mixing into his expression as he applauded his pupil.

"Well done Sakura, really well done. Seems like none of us can match your chakra control." Even Sasuke gave her an acknowledging nod, making Sakura blush, she even appreciated Naruto now praising her like she was the second coming of the first Hokage. It felt nice to be on top for once. For the rest of the day, Kenta was more lenient and cheerful than usual, so they got away with no more training that day.

Sakuras happiness continued until the next day and she had a skip in her step as they followed the path to their destination. They were still two days away from their destination, but Sakura didn't really care, since her euphoria was giving her a little high. She didn't notice her mistake before it was too late. Naruto had pushed her to the ground, and she could see him flinch in pain as they both landed in the dirt. Kenta and Sasuke had already sprang into action, the young Uchiha throwing several Kunai into the direction where the attack came from and the Jonin drawing his sword.

Sakura now was pinned under Naruto, who wasn't moving and just groaned out a "Are you alright Sakura." While he was obviously in pain. She moved him of her and almost screamed in shock, as she saw the rusted arrow embedded into Narutos shoulder. Blood was already drenching Narutos cloths and out of instinct, Sakura already wanted to pull out the arrow, but Naruto yelped in pain the moment she touched it.

She remembered, you ere not supposed to remove something like unless you could immediately bandage the wound or Naruto would lose even more blood. He was in shock and just lay on the ground groaning and Sakura didn't know what to do, she had neither the training nor the supplies, Sensei had the medical supplies. Thankfully he was already back, him and Sasuke having chased away the bandits, he was now taking care of Naruto.

"Sakura" he addressed her in a cool and collected tone and got her complete attention "I'll count to three and then I'll pull out the arrow, you immediately put with bandage on the wound and apply as much pressure as possible. Don't panic if blood comes out, you're just making sure that it's not too much." Sakura nodded as he gave her the cloth bandage and then, after a short pause, he grabbed the arrow gently but firmly and started to count.

One…two…. three!

Naruto screamed in pain, although Kenta only needed on quick yank to get the entire arrow out and immediately, just as she had been told, Sakura applied pressure with the bandage. Still, there was so much blood, it is soaking the bandage, it was covering her hands. She is applying pressure, but it still didn't stop. It was only a few seconds, but to Sakura it seemed like hours, before Kenta guided her hands away and finished the entire bandage. It wasn't perfect, but god enough to prevent Naruto from bleeding out and the blonde boy seemed to slowly recover a little.

Sakura was still in shock, her hands were covered in Narutos, her teammates blood, it was everywhere, it was still warm. She panicked, she needed to get this off, she needed get rid of this, she felt nuisance, she wanted to vomit, she… A stream of water was streaming down on her hands, washing away the blood, as Kenta emptied his entire water bottle on her hands. It wasn't completely clean, but it was better, and she stopped shacking, as Kenta pulled her into a one-armed hug.

"Don't worry, it's ok, everything is ok. He'll be fine, he'll be fine." He told her in a soft voice, but there was the hint of something in it that scared her. The faintest hint of a tremble, like he was saying to convince himself and not her and this was worse than anything right now. Sasuke now also came back, having chased off all the attackers and he looked at his wounded teammate.

"You idiot had to play hero, didn't you?" he scolded the blonde boy, while standing above him, to which Naruto, in a weak mumble replied.

"Well neither of you were paying attention and Sakura would have gotten hit in the head." He earned himself an acknowledging huff from the raven-haired Uchiha, before Kenta returned to him.

"We'll hurry to our destination and finish it as fast as possible and then we race back home like the will. If we are lucky and Naruto isn't too stupid, he shouldn't bleed out." Kenta tried to joke, but the atmosphere was too gloom for that. Sakura had just barely recovered some composure and Sasuke wasn't up for any jokes. So, Kenta, carefully, took his little brother piggyback and they continued their way. Even if they hurried, they still wouldn't be able to make it there within a day, it was already getting late and soon they had to take a break.

"You three sleep and I'll be sentry, the entire night, no arguments." He shoots down Sasuke before the Uchiha could even open his mouth and the Jonin almost forced them to fall asleep. But it was hard, Kenta had given him the painkillers from the medicine kit, but he was still in pain and hardly slept. This combined with shock and fear kept both Sasuke and Sakura awake for most of the night as well.

So, when the morning came, they all looked horrible, bags under their eyes and generally bad. But Naruto had not reacted, he was still in his sleeping bag and didn't react. Sasuke approached him and the moment he put his hand on the blond boy, his face turned pale and his eyes widened in shock. Naruto was hot, he had a massive fever and was unconscious only shaking slightly, covered in cold sweat.

Kenta immediately jumped up and to their side, panic no visible on his exhausted face. He inspected the wound and went just as pale as Sasuke, while he picked the boy up and addressed Sakura. "Sakura, get out the map and tell me where the nearest village is, we need a doctor, immediately." Sakura did as she was told, as she was now also filled with panic and she pulled the map out.

"Half an hour to the North-West is a larger village, they might have a doctor." Kenta only nodded in replay, while Sasuke had recovered from his shock and was now gathering all their supplies. It only took a minute and they were off, as fast their tired bodies allowed. And even then, Sakura had to admit that she was impressed by her Sensei, although he hadn't slept, carried both Naruto, his supplies and Narutos supplies, she could hardly keep up with him.

They managed to get to the village with in twenty minutes and while the villagers didn't want to help at first, the obviously suffering Naruto changed their position immediately. They guided them to the house of the doctor, who lived on a small hill outside the village and they raced there. Sasuke and Sakura had just caught up with Kenta again, when the door of the house opened, an older, mid-sixties, white haired man coming out. He looked at them angrily at first, having spotted their Konoha headbands, but he immediately mellowed once he saw the suffering Naruto.

"Get the boy in." he commanded, and Kenta did as he was told and carried Naruto inside and into the doctor treatment room, there he placed his little brother on the operating table and then explained what happened.

"Bandits attacked us, he got hit in the shoulder with a rusty arrow and it must have gotten infected. I did what I could, but I only have basic first-aid training." The doctor only grumbled at the explanation as he started to work, removing the bandage and properly cleaning the infected wound.

"Get out, wait in the living room. I'll inform you once I'm done." There was no resistance to this from Kenta and he immediately pushed both of his remaining, protesting students out of the room, closed the door and sat down on the old couch, burying his face in his hands. Both Sakura and Sasuke only looked at him, while he started "Please, please get ok."

The two children watched their teacher for a minute, before they both sat down too, not saying anything. They just sat there in silence, until the doctor finally came out, maybe half an hour or more later, they had no idea and addressed them.

"The boy is stable now. I properly cleaned out the wound took care of it; I also gave him antibiotics for the infection. He'll be asleep for quite some time and he shouldn't move for much longer." Kenta sighed loudly, as he finally relaxed in his seat and said.

"Do you mind me takin a nap? And my other students too, they really need it." The doctor nodded and Kenta gave Sakura a tired smile, as she was already about to reject, but he was right, they were all dead tired.

The doctor only looked at them for a moment, before he retreated to his private room. It only took a moment and the fact that Naruto was safe, made them all relax a little and after a minute they were all asleep.

And, there was blood again, blood on her hands, Narutos blood. No, this couldn't be, she looked around and Sasuke also lay there, in a puddle of blood. The blood was everywhere and there was so much of it, she couldn't take it, no. "Get off, get off, get off!". She snapped awake again, screaming. She looked at her hands and they were clean; she was still in the doctor's house.

"You ok Sakura?" Kenta was also awake, and he looked at her from the chair he had sat on the entire time and Sakura just nodded, but she was still shaking, and Kenta didn't fall for it.

"Seeing other people get hurt is always hard, especially if its your first time." He tried to assure her and after a moment of thinking Sakura replied.

"Will I ever stop feeling like this? How can I be a shinobi if I can't stand seeing my friends and other people get hurt?" there was almost a pleading tone in her voice, she wanted him to tell her that this was only a phase and would go away, but Kenta sighed, as he straightened himself and explained.

"The best thing you can hope for is that it never goes away. The moment you stop caring about these things is the moment you stop being a human. These feelings are important warning signals, if you feel shock and disgust from seeing other suffers, you won't put people in harms way easily. You will get used to it a bit, you'll be able to stomach it better, but I pray that neither of you ever stop caring about this." Kenta was weakly smiling at her, and Sakura understood what he meant, at least she thought so and now the Jonin stood up and made his way to the door separating the doctor's private rooms from his office.

He knocked at old wooden door and after a minute it was opened by the doctor and they started to talk. Sakura couldn't hear what they were saying, but after a few minutes of arguing her returned to her and Sasuke, who was now also awake, and Kenta told them what would happen now.

"I will finish the mission myself now. If I hurry, I should be back by tomorrow morning and then we can head home. The doctor agreed to let you stay here for the night, he'll keep an eye on Naruto and if we're lucky he'll be better tomorrow. There are more beds in the patient room with Naruto, so you can sleep there. Stay low and don't leave the house, Konoha shinobi aren't too popular here and keep an eye on Naruto."

Before they could ask any questions or object, Kenta had already left the house, leaving the two Genin alone. They looked at each other slightly perplexed, before Sasuke just shrugged and went to the patient toom, with Sakura following him. Inside, Naruto was asleep and hooked up to an IV, he didn't even snore which made the scene almost peaceful. Although he was drooling on his pillow a little.

Sasuke just grinned and shrugged, evidently Naruto was already feeling better, before he sat down on one of the other two free beds and again, Sakura did the same.

"So, any idea what to do or how to pass the time?" Sasuke asked and Sakura could only look at him in bewilderment, was this really Sasuke who had just asked this? The raven-haired Uchiha noticed and huffed, mumbling "We have to pass the time somehow, with the idiot asleep."

"We could make out." Sakura suggested in joking tone, although part of her hoped that Sasuke would agree, but he only raised his eyebrow and she waved her hands in a defeat.

"Worth a try." She shrugged and Sasuke lay down on the bed, his eyes fixed on the celling. For a minute he was silent, seemingly trying to find something irregular in the white celling, before he huffed again and said.

"Want to talk about what happened? Seems like you need it." He said this in a slightly arrogant tone, but for once Sakura could see through his façade. He was also worried and bothered by all of this and he needed somebody to talk to. So, Sakura also lay down and started talking.

"I never saw somebody bleed or suffer like this. I mean they tell us about this stuff in the Academy, but it just felt so far away and like it would never happen. I still can't stop thinking about all the blood, about how Naruto could have died because I wasn't paying attention, that it's my fault he got hurt." She was holding back tears and could hardly finish her sentence; it was just so much she had never faced, and it felt so horrible.

Sasuke didn't move and replied, in a neutral, almost monotone voice  
" We all make mistakes and I know this moron well enough to be sure that he won't blame you for anything. Seeing something like this for the first time is always hard, just remember not to get completely dull to this or you'll turn into a monster."

Sakura was puzzled, had Sasuke listened in and now just repeated what Sensei had told her? But that mixture of surprise and a little anger quickly faded away, as she realized something else.

"Have you experienced something like this before, Sasuke?" she asked, but got no answer, not even a sound. After a few moments she looked at Sasukes bed and saw, that he had turned away from her and covered himself with the sheets. Sakura looked at him for a minute, but he showed no movement, until he finally started to fake snore. Had she said something wrong? But while she wanted to ponder about this, the tiredness was now returning and within a few minutes she had fallen asleep.

* * *

Authors Note:

Well, this was Chapter 3. And if somebody is wondering, yes, we won't just follow the old canon story. You may ask "But without them, what will happen there? How will they solve that?" All in due time dear readers, all due time.

Tobi out.


	4. Chapter 4

Greetings friends.

Well, seems like my writing phase still continues. I thank everybody who followed, favourited and reviewed my little story here. But enough talk, here is Chapter 4 and have fun with it.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**The Land of Rivers**

It was dark inside the room when Sakura woke up, she must have had slept for hours and wondered how late it was. There was no clock in the room and Naruto was peacefully snoring in his bed, the doctor must have given him a strong sedative, so he would probably sleep through the rest of the night. She turned around to see if Sasuke was still asleep and shock filled her as she saw his empty bed, with nothing but a blanket left in it.

She wanted to jump up from her bed, but before she could, something crashed through the window, but before the object could reach her, Sasuke hand shot out of nowhere and caught it. She wanted to scream in shock, but Sasuke tore her from the bed and to the floor, covering her mouth with his hand and signalling her to be silent. She obeyed and for a minute the lay under the bed, silent and listening into the silence. Something or somebody was moving outside, and they could hear voices and finally Sasuke whispered.

"I woke up when I heard people moving around the house." He showed her the stone that had come through the window and she looked at him in shock, where they trying to mug them?

"They are not shinobi, their lack of equipment and how loud they are show that clearly. But there is at least half a dozen if not more of them and I'm not sure we can take them on without causing a lot of damage. Sakura only nodded slightly; did they have to fight? Would there be more blood, she would be covered in blood again?

The shacking returned, but Sasuke immediately pulled a hand on her shoulder and said "Calm down. I know you don't feel well about this. But we need to keep Naruto and the doctor safe." The doctor, she had completely forgotten about the doctor. The old man was probably still in his rooms and had no way to defend himself. She swallowed and took a deep breath, before giving a determined nod this time. They had to fight and keep them safe.

Sakura had no gear on her, she had been stupid and left it in the waiting room, but Sasuke seemed to know and handed her two kunai from his gear, before they slowly moved towards the door. The window was still broken, but they were on the first floor, so a non-shinobi wouldn't be able to go through it. This door was the only way into the room, but they needed to protect the doctor, too. So Sasuke slowly opened the door, peaking out to see if everything was clear. The rooms below were still empty, but they both shrugged after they saw an axe breaking through the main door. They heard voices much louder, them saying how they would "take care of this Konoha scum.".

Sakuras hand was shaking, as she was holding the kunai, but she had to get herself under control, they needed to defend the doctor and Naruto. Finally, the door broke and for a moment they waited, as several men almost fell into the house and once they had good targets, both Sakura and Sasuke threw a kunai at them, each of them hitting their target. Two man fell crying out in pain and agony.

Sakura had the second kunai in her hand Sasuke was ready to throw another knife, but before they could go at each other, the door to the doctor's apartment flew open. The old man stood there and once the lights were turned on by him, everybody could see the anger and rage in his face, as he screamed "ENOUGH." The attackers, who looked like normal farmers, armed with some rusty weapons and tools, seemed to turn into tiny dwarves as his eyes pierced them, before the youngest of them spoke up.

"How can you help this Konoha scum? After all they did to us and our nation, you still help them." The doctor did not show the tinniest reaction and did not lower his voice as he replied, causing the younger man to fall back behind his companions.

"I helped a child who was brought to my doorsteps by his teacher and brother. A child which got wounded by some idiots thinking they could achieve anything by hurting children. I am a doctor and I will help those who need my help. You can go on, attack these children and maybe survive, but you and the village will need another doctor, because I will not heal your wounds after that."

The men seemed unsure what they should do, but the doctors gaze remained on them and Sakura and Sasuke were still ready to fight. Finally, they lowered their weapons and helped their wounded and bleeding comrades.

"Bandage those wounds yourself and come to me tomorrow evening, I'll take care of you then. In difference to yours at least the weapons of those kinds aren't so dirty that you'll die from an infection" The doctor commanded them, and the men slowly left the house again through the door they had just torn down. The doctor looked at the mess of broken splinters that was his door and sighed, before turning his attention to Sasuke and Sakura. His gaze was still hard and while no longer filled with rage he wasn't happy with them either.

"Do not appreciate the usage of weapons in my house. I will let this pass this one time, but never draw any weapon in my house ever again." With these words, he closed the door behind him and left Sakura and Sasuke alone again.

Their pulse was still racing like crazy, adrenaline rushing through their veins as they slowly moved back into the room and sat down next to Narutos bed, neither of them able to just go back to sleep. They just sat there, trying calm themselves, while a fresh breeze came in through the broken window, making Naruto shiver, since he had pushed away his blanket while he slept. Sakura sighed and gently tugged him back in, until he seemed content again. For a moment she looked at him and smiled a little, he was kind of cute when he was like this, not annoying and at peace, but her eyes immediately went up to Sasuke, who seemed to almost explode from holding back his laughter.

"Not a word, this never happened, and you'll never tell him, understood?" she did herself to sound threatening, but it didn't really work with Sasuke, as he was holding back his laughter and pressed out a "Sure, mom". He could hardly hold it back and was now gasping for air and fell over his chair, to lay on the floor chuckling.

'Naruto must have been a real bad influence' Sakura thought to herself as she looked at thee giggling raven-haired boy, before she lay back on the bed and tried to fall asleep again. Sasuke had barely recovered from his laughing attack, when Sakura fell asleep again. This time she dreamt normal, no blood, just darkness, before the sound of a hammer on wood woke her up. She inspected her surrounding again, the window was still broken and Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. Naruto however was already up in his bed, full of almost hyperactive energy and ready to get up.

"Good morning Sakura, you slept even longer than me." He commented and the pink-haired girl held herself back from correcting him, since he was still injured and instead asked about his wellbeing.

"Morning Naruto how are you feeling?" before the blonde could answer, the old and deep voice of the doctor stopped him and answered instead.

"That is what I will find out now, young woman." His mood seemed to be better than yesterday and Sakura, who honestly didn't want to see the probably horrible looking wound on Narutos back, jumped out of the bed and pressed herself past the older man. Downstairs, Sensei Kenta happily greeted her, as he and Sasuke were repairing the splintered door. Behind her she heard surprised mumbling from the doctor and saw how Narutos face became pale because of that, Kenta already called her down to grab a bite to eat.

Now that he mentioned it, she remembered that she hadn't eaten for almost an entire day and felt like she was starving, so she stuffed down the ration like it was the most delicious meal she had ever seen. A few minutes later, Kenta was done, the door now made up of three nailed together pieces of wood, but it fitted into the frame tightly, so they were satisfied. The doctor than called Sensei into his office, while Sasuke also sat down at the table and ate a bite.

"So, Naruto's already up again?" Sasuke asked and Sakura nodded. Sasuke just sighed and mumbled something about "How peaceful it had been without Naruto" and she just giggled, knowing how relived the Uchiha was that his friend was fine again.

"So, how is the blonde menace doctor? I hope he didn't annoy you too much." Kenta said, as he leaned against the wall, while the doctor sat down on a comfortable office chair. He took a deep breath and inspected the Konoha shinobi, before he answered.

"He's well and I mean surprisingly well. His wound healing is beyond anything I've ever seen. If he continues to recover at this rate, the wound will be gone in two, maybe three days. Most people need that many weeks, at the very least."

Kenta nodded and sighed while replying "Yes, he always had had that ability." Knowing full well that it was not a bloodline or ability, but simply the Nine-tailed fox chakra doing its work. The doctor seemed somewhat satisfied with this answer and went back to his files, but only for a moment, before Kenta put a decent amount of money on the table.

"That is too much, the treatment of the boy doesn't even cost half of that, even if I count in the damage from the villagers attack that is still too much." The doctor said, half surprised, half annoyed by this. Kenta shock his head a little and pushed the small pile of bank notes closer towards him, explaining.

"See it as a thank you for everything. I know that the Leaf has done a lot of bad things in the river country and my money is not nearly close to being enough to pay for all the damage and loses, especially since many losses can't be made up with money."

Kenta stopped for a moment, as he looked at the old photograph on the wall, it showed a younger doctor, with a beautiful wife and a son only a few years younger than Kenta.

"You weren't born in the Leaf, right?" the doctor asked, "Your name, Ryotu, it ringed a bell with me, but surely nothing connected to the Leaf." Kenta nodded and after taking a deep breath himself he explained.

"I came to the leave when I was twelve, after enemies had destroyed my clan's village in the Grass country. We had nowhere the go and the Leaf took us in. I know how it is to be caught between the Great Powers, I saw the destruction Iwa and Konoha caused in my home country and for what it's worth, you have my heartfelt sympathy's." The doctor looked at this young man for a few moments, this young Konoha Jonin who just apologized to him for something that happened over a decade ago.

"You didn't even live in the Leaf back then, so you have no fault for what had happened so long ago." The doctor replied as he relaxed in his chair and leaned back.

"It's probably for the best if you leave now. The boy can be moved, I advise at least a week of no or only limited activity, but judging from what I saw of him, he'll probably crawling up the walls if he can't get up within two minutes."

Kenta smiled and laughed a little about this comment, before replying "Sounds like him" as he left the office. He fetched Naruto and took him piggyback again, at least today he wouldn't let him run and then told the rest of the team, that they were heading home. It was about time.

Before she had become a Genin, Sakura had never really appreciated how great a shower felt, but after sweating and exercising the entire day it felt like heaven. And she had really looked forward to this shower, to get all the filth from that mission away. It felt great and she enjoyed it for so long, that her mom knocked at the bathroom door, complaining about their exploding water bill. Finally, when she was done and in some comfortable civilian clothing, she lay down on her bed, relaxing. Sensei had told them to relax for today and honestly, she really wanted to just fall asleep and sleep through the rest of the day. She had already drifted away and was almost asleep, when a knock on the window made her snap awake again, as she jumped up. Her face turned angry, as she stomped towards the window, opened it and demanded answers to several question.

"Why are you here? Why aren't you knocking on the front door and why shouldn't I just push you off the ledge?" Naruto swallowed audibly and started to sweat, while Sakuras gaze was almost penetrating him.

"This is much faster and easier than knocking or ringing the doorbell, since I can make sure that you are actually there. And I came because Kenta wanted me to tell you something." Ok, she wasn't going to push him off, for now and continued to listen.

"And what does Kenta want you to tell me?" she asked, and Naruto immediately blurted out.

"We'll have another mission tomorrow. It won't be a long mission, but he wanted you to know." Sakura couldn't really hide her surprise, they were already going on another mission, although Naruto had just been wounded a few days ago.

"Are you even fit enough to go on mission? You had an arrow in your shoulder only a few days ago." She felt how dread was slowly building up in the back of her mind, as the memories from the last mission and the bad dream forced themselves back into her mind. But Naruto didn't seem bothered by the question, he smiled and just padded his shoulder while answering.

"It's already much better, I don't even feel any pain anymore. The hospital said I should train or fight for a few more days, but everything else is fine. I've always been a fast healer." He grinned widely while explaining this and Sakura could only barely hide her surprise. Whatever reason there was why Naruto had recovered from a wound like this so quickly, it surely wasn't him being a "quick healer". But who was she to judge, if the doctors said it was ok, then it would be ok?

For few more moments they now looked at each other, before Sakura broke the silence in an annoyed tone and asked

"Anything else you have to tell me, or can I have some privacy again." Naruto seemed a little flustered, but not wanting to be pushed or beaten of the ledge he only saluted and jumped away, while Sakura made sure to immediately close the window. A moment later her mother passed her room and commented

"Tell your friends that we have a doorbell next time." And Sakura just sighed, yeah, she should really do that one day, if they even cared about it. She lay down on her bed again and for a moment she wondered if she should read through some scrolls again, but the exhaustion returned to her and she just lay down and fell asleep.

The next day, they again met at the front gate and Kenta started to explain their mission to them

"Alright team. Today we'll take it easy and do a simple D-Rank mission outside the village. Just an hour walk away from here lives a nobleman. He and his wife will be away the entire day and it's our job to take care of their children and keep them safe." Both Sasuke and Naruto looked like somebody had just farted in their faces, this was even less than what they expected of a mission. Babysitting sounded like a real mess with little pay, even if they did it for a noble family.

Kenta seemed to be rather jovial and happy about this and Sakura honestly had no idea what to think of the entire situation. It was a simple mission yes, but she still felt a little disappointed, since she still wanted to improve herself and babysitting wasn't useful for that. But at least it would be some easy money and with the good pay from the last mission she gathered quite a nice amount of money from the last few jobs. And the idea of what she could do with that money made this mission much easier. At least she thought it would.

Turned out that they did not have to babysit one or two kids, but six, ranging from toddlers to 7-year olds, two girls and four boys. The girls were the youngest and still babies, so they needed to change nappies, give them bottle make sure they didn't get too close to electrical outlets. This task was delegated to Sakura and kept her busy enough. Sasuke and Naruto had to keep an eye on the older boys and they both swore, that these kids were possessed by demons.

One of them would always sneak out of their sight and cause some mayhem and when they tried to catch that one, the other three would also start to go crazy. Jumping around, screaming, throwing toys or trying to run outside, it drove Naruto nuts fast. And they couldn't be too harsh or use Ninjutsu, cause then these spoiled brats would cry to their parents and of course "their angels" could do no wrong. And, Kenta was no help, since he, using his authority as Sensei and team leader, had decided that he would keep the house and its surroundings safe. By laying on the roof, reading an adult magazine hidden in a normal magazine and then napping for the rest of the time.

"He will so pay for this. Least he can do is give me the magazine once we're home." Naruto grumbled as he cleaned up some of the mess the boys had left, while Sasuke chased after them and told him.

"Less fantasizing about tits and asses and more helping Naruto" he was already jumping away again, as he caught a boy, who had thought that jumping off a railing was a fun idea. Naruto then also jumped after another boy, who was trying to sneak out a door and he just barely got the kid and immediately locked the door, while which he ran away again. Naruto just sighed and for a moment he questioned if he had been this bad when he was around their age.

But before he could properly think about this, he had to run after the boys again and this went on for several more hours, until both boys were completely exhausted.

"This is worse than any training Kenta ever forced on us." Sasuke huffed, as they had a moment of peace, since the boys were busy eating. Naruto just nodded in agreement, while a far happier Sakura, who was feeding the youngest baby, told them

"Oh, come on guys, it's not that bad. They are actually pretty cute, don't you think?" like on que, like the universe wanted to punish her, the baby suddenly vomited its entire belly on Sakuras lap, coating most of her cloth in a layer of half disgusted food and stomach acid. For a moment they were all shocked, Naruto and Sasuke just stared at her, waiting for an eruption.

Sakura said nothing, she just put the baby in its seat and slowly walked away, towards the bathroom, vomit dropping of her. The door slammed and then Sakura let out a bone shattering scream that caused all the kids to fall silent immediately, while Naruto and Sasuke felt the urge to hug and hide for mutual protection. The scream was followed by sounds from the roof, since it had woken up Kenta, who in shock now rolled down the roof and fell hard on the ground. After a few moments the Genin and the older kids peaked out the nearest windows, to see Kenta lying face down in the dirt.

"I'm fine." He moaned and then, trying to lighten the mood, added "At least I have no nose that could break anymore" nobody laughed about it, but Kenta did chuckle a little over his own joke. They all went back inside and while Naruto cleaned up the dirt and vomit, the kids were calm and silent. They stayed like this till the parents returned two hours later. Only then Sakura came out of the bathroom and just walked inside, still smelling like the vomit she had spent the last two hours scrubbing off. The clients were happy, they better should be the house was cleaner than when they left and the team headed home, with Sakura still no saying a word.

"Well Sakura, I guess the baby had a strong gut feeling about you." They stopped in their tracks and everybody's eyes were glued to Sasuke, who had just, for the very first time in recorded history, made a pun joke. For a few moments they just stared, dumbfounded by this unexpected, believed to be impossible event.

Then, Sakura busted out laughing and the others joined in immediately, falling to the ground, laughing like maniacs. Sasuke just looked at them embarrassed and commented "The joke was not that funny".

But this only caused them to laugh even more and once they finally recovered their composure, Sakura didn't even really care anymore about her still smelling of vomit. They just recounted the funny parts of their babysitting mission while walking home and when the gate came into sight, Naruto had a brilliant idea.

"Sensei will treat us for food tonight, since he did only sleep during the entire mission." He proclaimed and earned some wide grins and approving nods from his teammate, while Kenta tried to defend himself.

"I am the sensei, I have…" he stopped, cause the three Genin were now all looking at him, with their wide, far too wide smiles and devilish eyes, like they were straight out of a horror movie. He wanted to resist, but in the end just sighed and gave in.

"Alright, two hours from now, at Ichirakus Ramen, Sensei will treat us." Naruto exclaimed and ran towards the gate, with the other two Genin following them, leaving a stunned Kenta standing there.

"My wallets already empty, how am I supposed to pay for this?"

Two hours later, they all sat at the Ramen store and Naruto, as usual, ordered about as much as the rest of his team. He immediately started to devour bowl after bowl, while Sakura started some small talk with Kenta, since Sasuke was probably not up for much talk.

"So, Sensei, are you happy with the progress we are making now? Any plans for the future we should now about?" Kenta slurped up some noodles and after a few moments replied.

"Oh, I'm quite satisfied with how you are developing. We still have a long way to go, but we are in a good spot now. And no, right now I have no special plans for the immediate future. We'll do a few more missions and continue the Ninjutsu training, once you get a hold of that we can do start with something else. I still have a few lessons to teach you." He grinned a little as he finished the last sentence and drank out the broth of the soup, while others continued to eat.

Kenta looked at them for a moment, while they were all focused on their food and sighed. There was something coming up in a month, but he didn't want to sign them up for the exams. In his eyes they were nowhere near the level they needed to become Chunin. On the other hand, he also knew they'd be disappointed once they found out that they wouldn't participate. And, in the back of his head, there was a small voice telling him, that this could be great for their development, even if they failed, they could still learn a lot from this.

But he had still time to decide, there was still a month till sign ups, so he wouldn't stress about it and give them a bit more time to grow and train. He was torn out of his train of thought, when Naruto put the fifth empty bowl on his pile and ordered another one and Kenta could fell how his already almost empty pocket became very, very flat. He only ate one bowl, Ramen wasn't really is food anyway and thankfully neither Sakura nor Sasuke ate as much as the bottomless, blonde hole.

Back home, Naruto immediately run to his room and Kenta just went to his own room, too. The luxury of a private room was still rather new for the Ryotu in Konoha. They, together with the Taci and Satsu had originally lived rather cramped and it had taken many years of work from all adults and teens to build the mansion the three families were now living in. And although it was a massive, four stories high building, his room was still only twelve feet by eight feet. Enough for a bed, a closet, a working desk and several shelves filled with books, scrolls and different weapons and gadgets. It was cramped, but it was his, so he liked it.

He lay down on his bed and although he had already napped during the mission, he felt tired and slowly fell asleep. At least until something hit his window and he bolted up. He opened the window and down in courtyard Tara was waving at him, calling him.

"Hey Kenta, got your lazy but here. Hiku and Masa are also home."

'Sure, why not' and jumped out of the window, down to the courtyard, landing right in front of his old teammate. She didn't even flinch just started to guide him towards the garden of the mansion, where Masamune and Hiku already waited with a case of beer. Hiku threw one at his cousin and he sat down with them, took a long gulp and they started to chat. It had been quite some time since the four of them had had time together like this, they were all Jonin and with Kenta being a team leader now they had even less time.

"I swear, my team will bankrupt me sooner than later. Even now that we are taking mission regularly, my wallet is still empty most of the time. Naruto still eats like a vacuum cleaner." The Ramen had not been that expansive, the money he had given the doctor was the main reason he was broke, but he didn't care about that.

"Well, another reason why I will never become a Sensei. I like to spend my money for myself." Masa commented and while supressing a laugh, Kenta returned

"Don't worry, nobody wants to traumatize Genins before their first mission, so they sure as hell will never make a maniac like you a Sensei."

They all laughed, while Masamune faked insult and after some dramatic gestures he answered

"Yes, cause what better person to teach the next generation, than a great mind like you. Morons always make such great educators."

"Well they did make Obito a Sensei, too." Now there was no holding back the laughter for them anymore, as they hysterically laughed about Hikus comment, before Kenta finally added.

"Well Hiku surely won't be a Sensei either. Can't afford that with you Tara." There was a moment of silence as the woman looked at him, before she finally shrugged and raised her hands, exclaiming.

"Well, quality costs" the boys now almost fell to the floor laughing, as Hiku pulled his girlfriend close to him and kissed her on the cheek, both barely containing their giggling. Masa simulated a gagging sound, which only motivated Hiku and Tara to turn this into a full make out session.

"Was worse enough when you and Tara were a couple." He mumbled towards Kenta "Both they haven't even calmed down a little bit since they got together. They're almost as worse as Rin and Obito." Kenta agreed, distant memories of the time he and Tara had been more than friends flashing before his eyes. It had been nice back then, but in difference to Hiku and Tara it had not been meant to last and thankfully had not left any negative impact on their friendship. Just some cherished memories and fun banter and teases to annoy each other from time to time.

"We really need a large hangout again, with Obito, Rin and Kakashi. It's been almost five months since we've done that." Kenta said after emptying his bottle and stretching his arms a little. The others agreed, but they also knew the problem with that idea. It was already hard for the four of them to find some free time together, add three more people to that mix and it would become almost impossible.

"I'll visit Rin tomorrow, maybe we can arrange something, it's really about time we celebrated the fact that both Kakashi and Kenta are not teachers, too." Kenta just emptied half of his bottle and mumbled a "Don't remind me" as his head hang low, causing his friends to burst out laughing again. But he agreed, it really was about time.

"Another long mission Sensei?" they had again gathered at the main gate of the village and, for some reason, they were waiting for something. Kenta nodded as an answer and kept looking for something on the village's main road.

"Yeah, but this time we will not do the mission on our own." Almost like on cue, another Shinobi, an older man, maybe around thirty years old appeared next to Kenta, who didn't even flinch. The man was almost as tall as Kenta, had short spiky black hair and a full beard and had an already lit cigarette in his mouth.

Sakura felt an uneasy memory crawling up from her mind and she could swear that Sasuke had just shuddered and a second later she knew why. A blonde girl threw herself onto Sasuke from behind and squelled "Sasuke, long time no see."

It dawned on Sakura what was going on and while she was getting ready to get Ino of Sasuke, who was torn between defending his private space and not hitting a girl, Naruto got approached by the rest of Team 10.

"This is going to be bothersome" Shikamaru mumbled, while Choji walked next to him, munching away some chips.

"Want some?" he offered his bag to Naruto, who happily took one, before Kenta announced what they were going to do.

"Alright, now that everybody is here, let's talk about the mission." We are to protect a construction site in the Land of Frost, which is why our two teams will work together on this mission. The danger profile on the mission is low, at the very most some thieves trying to steal equipment or some rowdies trying to cause trouble. Mission duration is to be two weeks, if everything goes according to plan. Any questions?"

Shikamaru was the first to nod in agreement, it made sense to send two teams to cover a large construction site, but he still knew that the situation would become bothersome. Especially since Kenta and Asuma now had to gently move Sakura and Ino away from each other, due to the danger of them tearing each other and Sasuke, who was between them, apart.

Naruto then mumbled to his visible annoyed and distraught friend "Man, you are one lucky bastard." To which Sasuke only grunted back

"I'd sell half my soul, one of my eyes and three thumbs if I could change with you in that regard."

Naruto needed a moment to think about this and realize that it was an insult, but by then the other had already walked off and instead of being angry, he had to run after them to catch up.

* * *

Authors Note:

Well, Chapter 4 done. On a side note: I do appreciate it if people take time to write Reviews, but please. If you think I left something out of the story or misrepresented it, in 95% of the cases I will either explain it further down the line or I took some artistic liberty and rewrote one or two tiny facts so that they fit the story I want to tell.

But enough of me whinning, have a nice day and see you soon.


End file.
